tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post5971221165576701824..comments2024-03-04T00:09:50.431-08:00Comments on Rikdad's Comic Thoughts: Retro Review: DC: The New FrontierRikdadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14475851964933197612noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-85535548875651994102017-09-20T14:06:07.843-07:002017-09-20T14:06:07.843-07:00Daniel,
One piece that I have contemplated writin...Daniel,<br /><br />One piece that I have contemplated writing is about "The Big Story" – several DCU stories, often Elseworlds, converge in telling a very big self-contained story in similar ways, almost like they were all the rough draft of one ultimate master story. For my money, New Frontier is the most essential of those, although others (such as JLA: The Nail) are also quite good.<br /><br />And, yes, the DCEU is almost by definition given the same marching orders. I very much enjoyed the DCEU movies so far, but I had more qualms. The only qualm I had about New Frontier was that it seemed wildly implausible that there would be a fighter pilot who refuses to shoot.<br /><br />I haven't read the Marvel Ultimates (or much Marvel at all), but Kurt Busiek's written two works that very much impressed me for being one-shot histories of everything Marvel: The "Marvels" graphic novel illustrated by Alex Ross, and JLA: Avengers, which has many nice small touches in summarizing both companies' inventories of heroes.Rikdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14475851964933197612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-87275382995365410792017-09-18T13:39:35.474-07:002017-09-18T13:39:35.474-07:00"Sometime a few months ago, I realized that i..."Sometime a few months ago, I realized that it is, in all likelihood, the best comprehensive account of the entire DC Universe in one work. If I had one DC story to take to a desert island, I can't think of a better choice."<br /><br />I agree completely with this assessment. He really synthesized down the essence of the entire DCU into one, cohesive, logical, novelistic narrative.<br /><br />I may be in the minority, but I also love the two Zack Snyder DCEU movies (MoS and BvS) and, assuming Justice League is of the same quality as those first two films (which, again, I thought were quite brilliant), I think those three films will have accomplished much the same task as New Frontier in organizing the essence of the entire DCU into one coherent narrative as well, but from a completely different angle and with a completely different tone.<br /><br />I also like to compare New Frontier to the first two volumes of The Ultimates, which were released around the same time as NF and essentially accomplish the same objective for the Marvel Universe: Retelling the story of the Avengers from the beginning in a unified story. It's interesting to compare and contrast the two approaches. Both are valid, but I think NF, done in a more classical style, has aged much, much better than The Ultimates which, while very good, feels much more dated to me.<br /><br />DanielUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690751692093581750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-67403385086720703522016-07-01T08:54:26.597-07:002016-07-01T08:54:26.597-07:00Sakei, I really relished Monster Men and Mad Monk,...Sakei, I really relished Monster Men and Mad Monk, and flipped through them briefly last month. What I particularly appreciate is their relationship to the source material, going back to Batman's first couple of years. The original material was written with very different sensibilities than one sees in later eras, and to integrate the facts of those stories, which involve the supernatural, with a more realist, "Year One" Batman is a compelling, even essential accomplishment that moves the character forward. They really delighted me.<br /><br />Trinity may be no less of a work on its own, but it doesn't fit into any mythos in the same way, and becomes a disposable, one-of-countless tellings of how Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman met. That's not Wagner's fault – it's just as well-written and illustrated as those two Batman stories – but it makes it a little less interesting to me, anyway.<br /><br />I might have preferred to have Wagner re-imagine the JSA story in All-Star Comics #36, which was the first printed meeting of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, which was handled very nonchalantly by Gardner Fox, like it was no big deal. They didn't appear together again until 1960. I'd like to have seen Wagner take up that story and make it into myth, a la Sandman Mystery Theatre.Rikdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14475851964933197612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-26652835729125593142016-06-26T20:07:33.815-07:002016-06-26T20:07:33.815-07:00On that note Rikdad, I'm curious what your tho...On that note Rikdad, I'm curious what your thoughts are on Matt Wagner's Trinity and his Batman retellings Monster Men and Mad Monk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-35237579931158384872016-06-25T19:39:41.419-07:002016-06-25T19:39:41.419-07:00Sakei, I'm glad you took the time to read NF. ...Sakei, I'm glad you took the time to read NF. The endless rehashes and re-rehashes of some of DC's canonical material gets a bit tiresome and redundant, but NF is, in my view, a damned good version of how the story should be told if it were only to be told once. And while the names and dates might be things we've seen before, the perspective and tone of Cooke's work is definitely distinct from anything before or since.Rikdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14475851964933197612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-9865689680065652292016-06-25T19:37:21.799-07:002016-06-25T19:37:21.799-07:00Jonny, that's a good recommendation for the Ab...Jonny, that's a good recommendation for the Absolute edition. There were follow-ups published in later years that added some background to NF's world, and I'm not sure if that's in the Absolute edition or not, but I think the original books, as I bought them, stand very well on their own.Rikdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14475851964933197612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-71560808226517225242016-06-23T19:53:22.389-07:002016-06-23T19:53:22.389-07:00I put off reading this for the longest time as I t...I put off reading this for the longest time as I tend to stay away from the retro nostalgia stuff like Batman '66, etc. However after having caught the DC animated movie of this, what a totally phenomenal story. It wasn't just sentimental cheese and 'oh gosh weren't things so much better back then' *COUGH*ALEX ROSS*COUGH*. There were tings of darkness, emotional stakes and a genuine sense of wonder that these beings had changed the world forever.<br /><br />Just an eggcellent book all around. Shame about Cooke, he left this world too soon, and selfishly he left us without the stories he had yet to tell.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2404509015791000032.post-39870896937781380532016-06-20T08:31:43.621-07:002016-06-20T08:31:43.621-07:00Fantastic Rikdad. I love this comic, it is collec...Fantastic Rikdad. I love this comic, it is collected beautifully in the Absolute edition. Darwyn Cooke was a treasure, and he will really be missed. Great review Jonnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14667412261395222328noreply@blogger.com